Common Mistakes To Avoid When Laying Paving Stone Steps

Paving stones, concrete paver, or paver are interlocking blocks with concrete as their basic composition material. These concrete pavers are extensively used to magnify the exterior beauty of homes, offices with an amazing and striking appearance. But it’s only one advantage of pavers! You can achieve much more than by building paving stone steps or patios by joining pavers. Another advantage is that installing pavers is not a labor intensive job as compared to building frames and then pouring concrete in the built frames. Bricks and stone pavers don’t need extra efforts to apply mortar to secure them. One can arrange them in any attractive design, no matter how difficult the design appears. Most of these projects don’t include much handling of the paving stones; instead, consist of excavating the dirt to set the pavers. But don’t get fooled by the deceptive easy tasks around the steps themselves. If you’re not prepared for the work needed to complete these tasks, contact one of many Winnipeg paving stone companies for a professional opinion.

Though these tasks appear simple initially, these are also key things that have to be executed appropriately to make the paver project turn out excellently as expected. Because the ideal way to build paving stone steps appears clear and streamlined, the best way to avoid potential mistakes is to know what not to do. Keeping this in mind, we have listed down the most common and potentially disastrous mistakes with paver installations.

Not Levelling the Ground

Earth’s surface remains in a constant flux state! It means it constantly expands and contracts as responses to climate change, humidity, and moisture in the atmosphere. Also, tree roots create a massive force on everything that comes in the way of their water hunting. All these can trigger the uneven ground levels. Though paving stone steps offers excellent rigidity as a floor covering, it’s also susceptible to contraction, expansion, and warping due to temperature and ground movement. So, bearing this in mind, it’s important to commence with planning and ground levelling. It is important, especially for the large format pavers. If anything slopes, it must be slightest to allow water to run off freely. Also, make sure you shape the slope for excavation while keeping the ground consistent throughout the project.

Clumsy Foundation

Many people think it is okay to lay the paving stone steps directly on the levelled ground. This idea seems even more impressive when you are working with a soil which is either compact or clay-filled. But when you continue with an excavation under these conditions, the natural foundation of the earth represents itself to be more sturdy and supportive enough for the pavers.But, the truth is, it’s not that sturdy or supportive! To allow the compact soil to resettle, give it sufficient time, use and rainfall so that it turns into an ideal form for installation of paving stone steps. Also, to make pavers smooth-out, use a compact layer of gravel covered with a bed of sand and place the final paver on that only.

Neglecting The Rise Between Slabs

Noticed that little rise between each slab? Well, that rise has to be supported by something mandatorily. If only natural soil exists between each slab, then it’s like inviting the soil erosion quite often. The weight of the pavers can increase the chances of occurrence of the rise that will eventually ruin the entire step and the efforts you put in the installation process.